APRIL 13, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
He left the
world a better
place
be made that it’s in the
African Sahel that the
Islamist terror threat is
now the globe’s worst
such vexation. This area
of hundreds of thousand
of square miles of abso-
lute poverty and misery
is an absolutely perfect
target for ISIS propa-
ganda. In a region where
people ordinarily die at
the age of 35 or 40, it is safe to say,
the militants’ promise of “paradise”
for martyrs has a very favorable
resonance. Common folk in Mali,
Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso are
so miserable that they feel uplifted
by the tenor of ISIS discourse. Sick-
ness and hunger have a way of do-
ing that.
Holding the line in the Sahel
for the West is France and a vari-
ety of African militaries and con-
stabularies, prominently including
the human rights-violating military
of Mali. Amnesty International re-
cently slammed the French-trained
Malians for killing just about all the
ISIS prisoners they take. Gruesome
are the tactics of ISIS, to be sure but,
the region’s counter-insurgency
forces are as bad or worse. French
“advice” to indigenous army troops
and cops is to take no prisoners. No
one in this brutal fi ght talks about
“hearts and minds.” Backed by
Washington D.C., Paris and its sub-
ordinate African regimes are taking
a “scorched earth” approach to the
Sahel’s problems.
These ISIS-infi ltrated countries
are horribly poor, horribly sick and
horribly hungry. Their predomi-
nantly Muslim populations see in
ISIS discourse an all-encompassing
answer for their misery. What can
well-fed army troops and cops say
to wretchedly threadbare peasants
and herdsmen that can convince
them of a given central govern-
ment’s “good intentions”? What
can the swaggering men in uniform
say to a father whose children are
starving to death? The people in
such circumstances will almost cer-
tainly listen to ISIS propaganda. It
is remarkable that Washington D.C.
and Paris are pursuing such a losing
strategy in the Sahel.
Frank W. Goheen
Vancouver,WA
letters
To the Editor:
Our Keizer and Salem
communities lost a won-
derful gentleman on Eas-
ter Sunday, April 1. John
Jenkins died peacefully at
his home in Keizer at age
94, with his wife Regina at his side.
John and Regina met and at-
tended the University of Ne-
braska at Lincoln, and both are
proud graduates. He was one of
the “Greatest Generation,” hav-
ing served in World War II. He and
Regina moved to Oregon to raise
their family. John and Regina both
had long careers with the State of
Oregon. John was an engineer with
the Oregon Department of Trans-
portation.
John was a 47-year member of
Keizer Rotary Club, joining in
1971. He was an early board mem-
ber, Paul Harris Fellow, and enjoyed
perfect attendance for many years.
He was active in every commu-
nity service project and fundraiser
for Rotary. He was a long and loyal
supporter of Rotary’s international
high school student exchange pro-
gram.
Other passions of his were John
Knox Presbyterian Church, where
he was very active in their com-
munity food bank charity. He was
also an early volunteer supporter
of the Keizer Heritage Center. In
recognition of his decades of vol-
unteer service to our community,
he was named Keizer’s First Citizen
in 1994.
John was a quiet and unassum-
ing gentleman. He epitomized the
Rotary principle of “service above
self.” John left our community and
world better than he found it.
John Doneth
Keizer
ISIS getting
foothold in Sahel
To the Editor:
There is talk about ISIS making
a comeback in Syria, and Presi-
dent Trump’s talk of simply walk-
ing away from the place certainly
doesn’t help matters; but, a case can
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Can moderation get up off the mat?
By MICHAEL GERSON
In the world of progressive politics,
all eyes are turned to Great Britain.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour
Party, represents progressivism in its
most uncompromising form. He and
his party are proposing massive in-
creases in social spending, tax hikes on
businesses and the wealthy, rent con-
trol in major cities, a ban on fracking,
a boost in the minimum
wage and the re-nation-
alization of railroads and
water companies. Corbyn
himself has advocated uni-
lateral disarmament, has
urged the United Kingdom
to leave NATO and has sel-
dom found a socialist revo-
lutionary he didn’t admire
(including Hugo Chavez).
And according to a recent YouGov/
Times poll, Corbyn’s Labour Party is
1 point behind the Conservatives in
voting intention.
There is no immediate election
on the horizon in the United King-
dom. And the disturbing ties between
British leftism and anti-Semitism are
emerging as a serious scandal. But
there is little doubt that Corbyn’s forc-
es have consolidated their hold on the
Labour Party, that the party did bet-
ter than expected in the 2017 election
and that Corbyn is no longer unthink-
able as a future prime minister.
Whatever else Corbyn’s ascendance
might mean, it is the death of Blair-
ism -- former Prime Minister Tony
Blair’s attempt to defi ne a center-left
alternative to the Labour Party’s hard
left. No more political trimming and
tacking. Corbyn supporters regard
themselves as part of a people-pow-
ered social movement -- dedicated to
economic equality and environmental
protection, opposed to militarism and
in revolt against a compromised estab-
lishment.
There is no exact political equiva-
lent to Corbyn himself in America, at
least outside the faculty lounge. But a
similar spirit could be seen in Bernie
Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign
-- the romance of ideological purity.
Sanders’ supporters were as opposed
to (Bill) Clintonism as Corbyn’s are
to Blairism, and for the
same reasons. Many on the
left have lost patience with
centrism. They feel part of
a progressive wave, a move-
ment. They see no need to
compromise, just to orga-
nize.
In America, this ten-
dency on the left is rein-
forced by Donald Trump’s consolida-
tion of power in the Republican Party.
Trump’s extremism -- his combina-
tion of plutocracy, misogyny and na-
tivism -- has encouraged ideological
ambition in his opponents. His vul-
nerability is taken -- not as an op-
portunity to build a broad political
coalition against Trumpism -- but as
a chance to win without compromise.
A chance to bury conservatism itself.
Compared with Great Britain, this
is a big and diverse country. So this
trend on the left is not found every-
where equally. But consider recent
events in California. In February, the
state Democratic Party refused to en-
dorse Sen. Dianne Feinstein for re-
election. Though a liberal by almost
any standard, Feinstein was not lib-
eral enough for delegates at the party
convention. Her challenger, state Sen.
Kevin de Leon, attacked her support
for school vouchers, for anti-terrorist
surveillance, for “a criminal justice
system propped up by institutional
racism,” and for the Iraq and Afghan
the
opinion
of
others
wars. “The days of Democrats biding
our time, biding our talk, are over,” de
Leon told cheering delegates. “Lead-
ership comes from human audacity,
not congressional seniority. ... We de-
mand passion, not patience.”
Some progressives talk of Califor-
nia -- with its political argument be-
tween left and lefter -- as a model for
the nation. A recent (and much tweet-
ed) article by Peter Leyden and Ruy
Teixeira concludes that bipartisanship
is dead because the GOP is no lon-
ger a functioning partner. Describing
our politics as a new civil war, they
argue: “At some point, one side or
the other must win -- and win big. ...
Now the entire Republican Party, and
the entire conservative movement that
has controlled it for the past four de-
cades, is fully positioned for the fi nal
takedown that will cast them out for
a long period of time in the political
wilderness. They deserve it.”
In the GOP, fanaticism seems to
have all the passion and energy. On
the left, the same is increasingly true.
But there are problems when politics
ceases to be the realm of partial agree-
ment and becomes a confl ict of social
movements. The virtues essential to
self-government -- civility, compro-
mise and moderation of temperament
-- are devalued. The incremental re-
forms necessary to solve public prob-
lems become impossible. Opponents
are dehumanized and viewed as ene-
mies. The cruel and intemperate come
to dominate our political life.
Simply put: If the response to
Trump is a general radicalization of
American politics, the damage will last
generations. Somehow, in the midst of
so much fanaticism, moderation must
fi nd a passion of its own.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
Success in college sports
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When the last whistle blew, the
fi nal foul called, and the men’s and
women’s champions decided, March
Madness 2018 came to its close last
month. With the winners deter-
mined, there were ecstatic folks at
Notre Dame and Villanova while
at
other
universities
across the country, those
that also sought notori-
ety through the NCAA
brackets, were left to mut-
ter, “Well, there’s always
next year.”
The University of Or-
egon and the Oregon
State University women’s
teams came close to glory
as both won their games to the Elite
Eight. The Oregon men were invited
to the National Invitational Tourna-
ment, and lost in its second game
while Oregon State’s men were not
invited to post-season play at all.
In comparing student numbers at
just four universities in the women’s
national contest, University of Or-
egon, Oregon State University, and
Notre Dame: UO has an enrollment
of about 24,000; OSU counts around
30,000; and winner, Notre Dame,
numbers just over 12,000. The
number of men at UO and OSU, of
course, are the same as the women
while winner Villanova enrollment
counts only 11,000 students. With
contrasting numbers so high and
player selection so broad how can
they miss grabbing the big trophy?
One sports writer argued that to
win on the national stage what was
needed, for example, at the University
of Oregon was for Coach Dana Alt-
man to persuade three upperclassmen
to give up millions in earning power,
after their Final Four appearance last
year, to return for at least one more
college season with the prophetic
chance to win it all in 2018.The
writer also wrote that a colleague of
his contacted Dillon Brooks of season
2016-2017 UO fame, now with the
NBA’s Memphis Griz-
zlies, to inquire about
his early departure. His
answer could have been
predicted: “I’ve got a lot
more money.”
However, I’d argue that
players coming from oth-
er states and even other
countries look for the best
deal in scholarship details
while the specifi c university is a low-
er level concern unless the individual
seeks a specifi c degree and thereby
makes his choice of school. Rela-
tive to this matter, NCAA rules do
not now allow any school to pay
salaries. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of
cash the shoe makers “invest” in one
form or another to outstanding high
school athletes, their families, coaches
and school shoes and clothing to per-
suade through formal deals and infor-
mal arrangements for use of Adidas,
Nike or Under Armor gear followed
by contractual arrangements at the
college they attend.
So, how is it that public and pri-
vate universities with much smaller
enrollments are more and more of-
ten nowadays taking home the grand
prize? The difference is that while
public university players quite often
are recruited from families of limit-
ed means, the private school recruit
quite often comes from families of
greater fi nancial means where the
money consideration is not nearly as
gene
h.
mcintyre
important as it is to those from fami-
lies of limited means. Also, specifi -
cally relative to the private schools are
the religious and association factors
that have to do with one’s faith and
membership therein, two conditions
that often mean little to poorer black
or Hispanic kids or youth from many
European countries.
A kid from a impoverished back-
ground without strong church or
community ties generally could care
less whether some college team in
Oregon, Michigan or California gets
its name on a bronze plaque or brings
home a big trophy. He wants to make
it into the professional athlete world
where earnings exceed a million
dollars. Furthermore, he can pass on
getting a free education because he
dreams of the opportunity to make
the big bucks, leading to early re-
tirement with no need for a college
degree as money will buy everything
important to his ego and material
needs.
A matter that deserves consid-
erable attention is the dominating
infl uence of money in competitive
sports at every level of public and
private education and the profession-
al ranks. Many among us have mak-
ing money as their top priority and
highest value in living the American
life. And that’s why so much of the
negative has crept into competitive
sports with corrupt and even crimi-
nal practices until greed prevails as it
does now. Hence, the excessive im-
portance of money ultimately allows
evil to take over with all things once
beautiful gone ugly.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)